{"id":197,"image":{"id":961,"uuid":"db44a63d-4943-421a-a9a7-025e7c66544a","name":"Annes tafeltje","title":"Annes tafeltjes","alt":"Fotograaf: Allard Bovenberg. Collectie: Anne Frank Stichting.","url":"","path":"https://research.annefrank.org/media/Annes-tafeltje.jpg","filetype":"image","description":"Anne zat graag aan het tafeltje in haar kamer te schrijven, te lezen en te leren. Foto van het heringerichte Achterhuis.","author":"De collectie kan worden ingezet voor publiek","copyright":"AFS rechthebbende"},"url":"https://research.annefrank.org/en/onderwerpen/58b5fe11-0b39-46e0-809e-1e1a5eccb1e7/","published":true,"uuid":"58b5fe11-0b39-46e0-809e-1e1a5eccb1e7","name":"The writer Anne Frank","name_nl":"De schrijfster Anne Frank","name_en":"The writer Anne Frank","description":"
Anne Frank's diaries underpin everything that has become known about Anne Frank and the history of the time in hiding. After all, it is almost exclusively Anne's writings that document the course of the 25 months in hiding.
\r\n\r\nThe handwritten manuscript of Anne Frank's diaries, on the basis of which Otto Frank compiled the first edition of The Secret Annex (1947), consists of a red checked booklet, two cardboard notebooks and over 200 sheets of coloured copy paper. Otto Frank bequeathed his daughter Anne's manuscripts from the period of hiding to the State of the Netherlands. Since June 2009, they have been with the Anne Frank House. Since the scholarly edition of the diaries (1986), it has been customary to refer to these manuscripts successively as diaries 1, 2 and 3 (or A-version) and the loose sheets (or B-version).[1]
\r\n\r\nDiaries 1, 2 and 3 contain Anne Frank's original diary entries. On the loose sheets, she began rewriting and editing her original diary entries in the spring of 1944 with the intention of writing a novel entitled The Secret Annex.[2] Together with the Storybook, the Favourite Quotes Notebook and the Blanco Monster Electro Huishoudboek (photo album), these manuscripts form Anne Frank's legacy from the hiding period in the Secret Annex.
\r\n\r\nFrom before the period in hiding, a number of letters written by Anne to her father and to her family in Switzerland have been preserved.[3]
\r\n\r\nIn Anne's handwriting, a number of rhymes are known in the poetry albums of her friends. Rhymes by Anne are known to exist in the albums of Juultje Ketellapper, Henny Scheerder, Mary Bos, Kitty Egyedi, Jacqueline van Maarsen, Hanneli Goslar, Ytje Swilens, Bep Groot Batavé, Dinie van Amelsbeek.[4] Also surviving from this period is the 'Egypt Book', a cardboard notebook in which Anne (re)wrote comments on pictures cut from a Kunst in Beeld worksheet on the history of Egypt.[5] It is assumed that this was an assignment made in the first year of secondary school. A similar piece of work was made by a former classmate of Anne Frank at the 6th Montessori school, Klaartje Musikant in the first year of HBS.
\r\n\r\nClassmates at the 6th Montessori school say Anne was writing stories back then.[6] None of these survived, however.
\r\n\r\nIn his book, Ernst Schnabel quoted Mr van Gelder, Anne's teacher in the first to fourth grades of the 6th Montessori school, as saying that Anne wrote good essays and wanted to be a writer.[7]
\r\n\r\nAnne received the famous red checked diary for her thirteenth birthday on 12 June 1942.[8] She addresses her first real diary entry on 14 June to her diary self: 'I'll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesn't count).'[9] When she went into hiding a few weeks later with her parents and sister Margot, the diary is the first thing she packed, she later writes.[10]
\r\n\r\nOn Wednesday 8 July 1942, Anne wrote in her diary for the first time while in hiding.[9] She describes the day of Margot's call-up for labour and going into hiding. The second note is a reflection on her birthday exactly a month before.[11] This first diary runs until 5 December 1942.[12] "I may perhaps ask Bep if she could go to Perrij and see if they still sell diaries, otherwise I'll have to get a notebook soon, because my diary is getting full, too bad! I can fortunately stretch it a bit with the leaves I have stuck between them," Anne wrote on 20 October 1942.[13] Bep Voskuijl explained that Anne asked her for a diary that could be locked with a key, but that she did not manage to find such a thing at the time.[14] On 2 May 1943 and on 22 January 1944, Anne retrospectively added notes.[15] She also wrote then that by now she considered it a waste of the pages left empty.[16]
\r\n\r\nWhatever the case, the following diary or diaries are missing. The second surviving diary begins with the entry of 22 December 1943 and runs until 17 April 1943.[17] The third diary follows this and runs from 18 April 1943 to 1 August 1944 (three days before the arrest of the people in hiding and two of their helpers).[18] A whole year's worth of diary is therefore missing.
\r\n\r\nFrom the very first page, Anne addresses her diary personally, making her diary a friend.[19] She ends the diary entry of 21 September 1942 with: 'I would just love to correspond with somebody, so that is what I intend to do in future with my diary. I shall write it from now on in letter form, which actually comes to the same thing. Dear Jettje, (I shall simply say), My dear friend, both in the future as well as now I shall have a lot to tell you.'[20] That evening, Anne also writes a few lines to Emmy and asks her if she has read Joop ter Heul.[21]
\r\n\r\nFrom then on, Anne takes turns addressing her diary entries predominantly to different imaginary girlfriends: Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien and Loutje whom she partly borrowed from the characters in Cissy van Marxveldt's Joop ter Heul series.[22] She writes: 'I like this way of writing in my diary much better.'[23]
\r\n\r\nIn the Joop ter Heul series, Joop wrote letters to her friend Netty, but because her father only allowed her to write once a month (on Sundays) because of her school performance, she started keeping a diary (secretly) in her sister's old notebooks.[24]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul had a club with seven girlfriends (Pop, Pien, Noortje, Loutje, Kitty and Conny) whose name was formed by the initial letters of their names: the Jopopinoloukico club. Anne Frank also had a club with Sanne, Jacqueline, Ilse and Hanneli: the Little Bear minus 2.[9]
\r\n\r\nAnne loved Cissy van Marxveldt's books and had certainly read one volume of the Joop ter Heul series before going into hiding.[25] According to Jacqueline van Maarsen, Anne and she read the second volume. That would mean she would have finished the first volume at that point.[26] She read Een Zomerzotheid by Cissy van Marxveldt no less than four times.[27] While in hiding, Johannes Kleiman took his daughter's books for her.[27]
\r\n\r\nOn 21 September 1942, the day she started the letter form in her diary, she had just finished or almost finished Joop ter Heul and had to wait for Mr Kleiman to bring the last two volumes for her the next Saturday.[28] Two days after that, on 26 September, she had finished both of them (Joop van Dil-ter Heul and Joop en haar jongen). She liked the last volume best.[29]
\r\n\r\nAround the same period, Anne wrote a letter in her diary to Jacqueline van Maarsen and answered an imaginary letter from Jacqueline.[30] Anne wrote her diary letters to Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien and Loutje. She wrote to them about herself and the events in the Secret Annex. At the same time, she reacted to events and people who appeared in the Joop ter Heul books. For example, Anne asked Noortje to stay and arranged it with Noortje's mother.[31]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul talked about the distance that always existed between her and her mother.[32] Both Anne and Joop had a mother they could not discuss things with. The last diary entry from the first red checkered diary is addressed to Kitty.[28] From the very beginning, Anne made it clear that she preferred to write to Kitty.[33] The real Kitty from the Joop ter Heul series is called Kitty Franken.
\r\n\r\nIn diaries A2 and A3, Anne addresses entires only to Dear Kitty. Since 1943 is almost entirely missing from the A version, we do not know when Anne switched to this.
\r\n\r\nIn the first diary letter of the B version, Anne explained that the diary idea came about because she does not have a girlfriend, that the diary itself will be the girlfriend and that that girlfriend is called Kitty.[34] All the diary letters of the B version begin with Dear Kitty.
\r\n\r\nIn response to Minister of Education Bolkestein's appeal on Radio Orange on 28 March 1944, Anne began rewriting her original diary on loose (light yellow, light blue, pink and grey) sheets of copy paper, commonly called the loose sheets, in late May 1944.[35] Bep Voskuijl stated that she had provided Anne with this carbon copy paper.[14]
\r\n\r\n"Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war, a collection would be made of diaries and letters dealing with the war. Of course everyone pounced on my diary. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annex. The title alone would make people think it was a detective story."\r\n\r\n
And on Saturday 20 May 1944, Anne Frank writes: "At long last after a great deal of reflection I have started my 'Achterhuis', in my head it is as good as finished, although it won't go as quickly as that really, if it ever comes off at all."
\r\n\r\nThe loose sheets cover the period from 20 June 1942 to 29 March 1944. Anne thus edited her original diaries into the B-version in just over two months. It is important to realise here that although Anne used her original diaries as a basis, the B version was written retrospectively. She describes events from 1942 and 1943 in the spring and summer of 1944. For example, in the A-version, she writes of her diary: "I am oh so glad I took you with me."[29] In the B-version, she emphasises the importance of her diary by writing that she packed it first on the night before they went into hiding.[10]
\r\n\r\nThe fountain pen Anne wrote with, a present from Grandma Höllander for her ninth birthday, accidentally disappeared into the stove along with the potato peels.[36]
\r\n\r\nAnne repeatedly mentions how important writing is to her. For instance, she thanks God for giving her the opportunity to express herself through it.[37] She writes that she wants to become a journalist and: "no one who does not write knows how fine writing is; I used to regret that I could not draw at all, but now I am overjoyed that at least I can write."
\r\n\r\nIn the summer of 1943, Anne started writing stories. The stories were recorded in the diary, on loose sheets and in a cardboard notebook.[38] She wanted to try to get one of her fairy tales placed in the magazine De Prins under a nom de plume, but thought it would not succeed because her fairy tales were too long.[39] Otto Frank said about this after the war that Anne asked Kleiman to send the story Blurry the Explorer under his daughter's name. Kleiman thought this was too dangerous. In the story The Best Little Table, we read that Anne had daily access to the little table in the room she shared with Fritz Pfeffer from 2.30 to 4 pm.[40] With great difficulty, she fought for an extra hour and a half twice a week.
\r\n\r\nAround the same time when Anne started writing her stories, she received the booklet Literature and Style Study for her fourteenth birthday.[41] It was an anthology of literary prose and verse explaining stylistic figures and characteristics of different writers.
\r\n\r\nDe dagboeken van Anne Frank liggen ten grondslag aan alles wat bekend is geworden over Anne Frank en de onderduikgeschiedenis. Het zijn immers vrijwel alleen Annes geschriften die het verloop van de 25 maanden onderduik documenteren.
\r\n\r\nHet handgeschreven manuscript van de dagboeken van Anne Frank op basis waarvan Otto Frank de eerste editie van Het Achterhuis (1947) samenstelde, bestaat uit een rood geruit boekje, twee gekartonneerde schriften en ruim 200 vellen gekleurd doorslagpapier. Otto Frank heeft de handschriften van zijn dochter Anne uit de periode van de onderduik nagelaten aan de Staat der Nederlanden. Sinds juni 2009 bevinden deze zich bij de Anne Frank Stichting. Sinds de wetenschappelijke editie van de dagboeken (1986) is het gebruikelijk deze handschriften achtereenvolgens dagboek 1, 2 en 3 (of A-versie) en de losse vellen (of B-versie) te noemen.[1]
\r\n\r\nDagboek 1, 2 en 3 bevatten de oorspronkelijke dagboekaantekeningen van Anne Frank. Op de losse vellen begint ze in het voorjaar van 1944 haar oorspronkelijke dagboekaantekeningen te herschrijven en bewerken met de bedoeling een roman getiteld Het Achterhuis te schrijven.[2] Samen met het Verhaaltjesboek, het Mooie-zinnenboek en het Blanco Monster Electro Huishoudboek (fotoalbum) vormen deze handschriften de nalatenschap van Anne Frank uit de onderduikperiode in het Achterhuis.
\r\n\r\nVan voor de onderduikperiode zijn een aantal brieven van Anne bewaard gebleven die zij schreef aan haar vader en aan haar familie in Zwitserland.[3]
\r\n\r\nIn het handschrift van Anne is een aantal versjes bekend in de poëziealbums van vriendinnetjes.Er zijn versjes bekend van Anne in de albums van Juultje Ketellapper, Henny Scheerder, Mary Bos, Kitty Egyedi, Jacqueline van Maarsen, Hanneli Goslar, Ytje Swilens, Bep Groot Batavé, Dinie van Amelsbeek.[4] Verder is overgeleverd uit deze periode het z.g. Egypteboek, een gekartonneerd schrift waarin Anne commentaar heeft (over)geschreven bij plaatjes geknipt uit een werkblad van Kunst in Beeld over de geschiedenis van Egypte.[5] Verondersteld wordt dat dit een werkstuk is gemaakt in de eerste klas van de middelbare school. Eenzelfde soort werkstuk werd gemaakt door een voormalig klasgenootje van Anne Frank op de 6e Montessorischool, Klaartje Musikant in de eerste klas van de HBS.
\r\n\r\nKlasgenoten op de 6e Montessorischool zeggen dat Anne toen al verhaaltjes schreef.[6] Als dit al zo is, dan is hier niets van overgeleverd.
\r\n\r\nErnst Schnabel citeerde in zijn boek meneer Van Gelder, Annes leraar in de eerste tot en met de vierde klas van de 6e Montessorischool, dat Anne goede opstellen schreef en schrijfster wilde worden.[7]
\r\n\r\nAnne kreeg het bekende rood-geruite dagboekje voor haar dertiende verjaardag op 12 juni 1942.[8] Haar eerste echte dagboeknotitie op 14 juni richt ze aan haar dagboek zelf: 'ik zal maar beginnen vanaf het ogenblik dat ik je gekregen heb, dus dat ik je heb zien liggen op mijn verjaardagstafel, (want het kopen, waar ik ook bij ben geweest telt niet mee).'[9]Toen ze enkele weken later met haar ouders en zus Margot ging onderduiken, is het dagboek het eerste wat ze inpakte, schrijft ze later.[10]
\r\n\r\nOp woensdag 8 juli 1942 schrijft Anne voor het eerst in onderduik in haar dagboek.[9] Ze beschrijft de dag van de oproep van Margot en het gaan onderduiken. De tweede notitie is een reflectie op haar verjaardag precies een maand daarvoor.[11] Dit eerste dagboekje loopt tot 5 december 1942.[12] 'Ik mag Bep misschien vragen of zij bij Perrij eens kan gaan kijken of die nog dagboeken verkopen, want anders moet ik gauw een schrift nemen, want mijn dagboek raakt vol, jammer! Ik kan het gelukkig nog wat strekken met de bladeren die ik er tussen heb geplakt', schrijft Anne op 20 oktober 1942.[13] Bep Voskuijl heeft verklaard dat Anne haar vroeg om een dagboek dat met een sleuteltje te sluiten was, maar dat het haar destijds niet lukte om zoiets te vinden.[14] Op 2 mei 1943 en op 22 januari 1944 voegde Anne in retrospectief aantekeningen toe.[15] Ze schreef toen ook dat ze het inmiddels zonde van de opengelaten bladzijden vond.[16]
\r\n\r\nHoe dan ook, het volgende dagboek of dagboeken ontbreken. Het tweede overgeleverde dagboek begint met de notitie van 22 december 1943 en loopt tot 17 april 1943.[17] Het derde dagboek sluit hierop aan en loopt van 18 april 1943 tot en met 1 augustus 1944 (drie dagen voor de arrestatie van de onderduikers en twee van hun helpers).[18] Een heel jaar ‘dagboek’ ontbreekt dus.
\r\n\r\nVanaf de eerste pagina richt Anne zich persoonlijk tot haar dagboek en maakt haar dagboek tot een vriendin.[19] De dagboeknotitie van 21 september 1942 eindigt ze met: 'ik heb zo’n zin om met iemand te corresponderen, en dat zal ik dus in het vervolg maar met mijn dagboek doen. Ik schrijf dus nu in briefvorm wat feitelijk op hetzelfde neerkomt. Lieve Jettje (zal ik maar zeggen,) mijn lieve vriendin, ik zal je in het vervolg en ook nu nog veel te vertellen hebben.'[20] Die avond schrijft Anne ook nog een paar regeltjes aan Emmy en vraagt haar of ze Joop ter Heul heeft gelezen.[21]
\r\n\r\nVanaf dat moment richt Anne haar dagboeknotities om beurten overwegend aan verschillende denkbeeldige vriendinnen: Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien en Loutje die ze gedeeltelijk ontleende aan de karakters uit de Joop ter Heul reeks van Cissy van Marxveldt.[22] Ze schrijft: 'deze manier om in mijn dagboek te schrijven vind ik veel fijner.'[23]
\r\n\r\nIn de Joop ter Heul-reeks schreef Joop brieven aan haar vriendin Netty, maar omdat ze van haar vader vanwege haar schoolprestaties maar een keer per maand (op zondag) mocht schrijven, ging ze (stiekem) in oude schriften van haar zus een dagboek bijhouden.[24]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul had met zeven vriendinnen (Pop, Pien, Noortje, Loutje, Kitty en Conny) een club waarvan de naam gevormd werd door de beginletters van hun namen: de Jopopinoloukicoclub. Anne Frank had met Sanne, Jacqueline, Ilse en Hanneli ook een club: de Kleine Beer minus-2.[9]
\r\n\r\nAnne was dol op de boeken van Cissy van Marxveldt en had zeker al voor de onderduik een deel uit de Joop ter Heul-reeks gelezen.[25] Volgens Jacqueline van Maarsen lazen Anne en zij het tweede deel. Dat zou betekenen dat zij hier het eerste deel uit had.[26] Een Zomerzotheid van Cissy van Marxveldt las ze maar liefst vier keer.[27] Tijdens de onderduik nam Johannes Kleiman de boeken van zijn dochter voor haar mee.[27]
\r\n\r\nOp 21 september 1942, de dag dat ze in haar dagboek begint met de briefvorm, heeft ze net of bijna Joop ter Heul uit en moet ze wachten tot meneer Kleiman de komende zaterdag de laatste twee delen voor haar meeneemt.[28] Twee dagen daarna, op 26 september heeft ze die allebei (Joop van Dil-ter Heul en Joop en haar jongen) uit. Ze vindt het laatste deel het leukst.[29]
\r\n\r\nOmstreeks dezelfde periode schrijft Anne in haar dagboek een brief aan Jacqueline van Maarsen en beantwoordt een denkbeeldige brief van Jacqueline.[30] Anne schrijft haar dagboekbrieven aan Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien en Loutje. Ze schrijft hen over zichzelf en over de gebeurtenissen in het Achterhuis. Tegelijkertijd reageert ze op gebeurtenissen en personen die voorkomen in de boeken van Joop ter Heul. Zo vraagt Anne Noortje te logeren en regelt dat met de moeder van Noortje.[31]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul had het over de afstand die er tussen haar en haar moeder altijd geweest is.[32] Zowel Anne als Joop hadden een moeder waar ze geen dingen mee kunnen bespreken. De laatste dagboeknotitie uit het eerste rood-geruite dagboekje is gericht aan Kitty.[28] Al vanaf het begin heeft Anne duidelijk gemaakt dat ze het liefst aan Kitty schrijft.[33] De echte Kitty uit de Joop ter Heul-reeks heet Kitty Franken.
\r\n\r\nIn dagboek A2 en A3 richt Anne zich alleen nog tot lieve Kitty. Omdat in de A-versie 1943 bijna geheel ontbreekt, weten we niet wanneer Anne hiertoe is overgegaan.
\r\n\r\nIn de eerste dagboekbrief van de B-versie legt Anne uit dat het dagboekidee is ontstaan omdat ze geen vriendin heeft, dat het dagboek zelf de vriendin zal zijn en dat die vriendin Kitty heet.[34] Alle dagboekbrieven van de B-versie beginnen met lieve Kitty.
\r\n\r\nNaar aanleiding van de oproep van minister van onderwijs Bolkestein op radio Oranje op 28 maart 1944 begint Anne eind mei 1944 haar originele dagboek te herschrijven op losse (lichtgele, lichtblauwe, roze en grauwe) velletjes doorslagpapier, meestal de losse vellen genoemd.[35] Bep Voskuijl heeft verklaard dat zij Anne had voorzien van dit doorslagpapier.[14]
\r\n\r\n'Lieve Kitty, Gisterenavond sprak minister Bolkesteyn aan de Oranjezender erover dat er na de oorlog een inzameling van dagboeken en brieven van deze oorlog zou worden gehouden. Natuurlijk stormden ze allemaal direct op mijn dagboek af. Stel je eens voor hoe interessant het zou zijn, als ik een roman van het Achterhuis uit zou geven, aan de titel alleen zouden de mensen denken dat het een detective-roman was.'\r\n\r\n
En op zaterdag 20 mei 1944 schrijft Anne Frank: 'Eindelijk na heel veel overpeinzingen ben ik dan met m’n Achterhuis begonnen, in m’n hoofd is het al zover af als het kan, maar in werkelijkheid zal het wel heel wat minder gauw gaan, als het wel ooit afkomt.'
\r\n\r\nDe losse vellen beslaan de periode van 20 juni 1942 tot en met 29 maart 1944. Anne heeft dus in ruim twee maanden haar oorspronkelijke dagboeken bewerkt tot versie-B. Het is belangrijk om hierbij te beseffen dat, hoewel Anne haar oorspronkelijke dagboeken als basis gebruikte, de B-versie in retrospectief geschreven is. Ze beschrijft gebeurtenissen uit 1942 en 1943 in het voorjaar en de zomer van 1944. Zo schrijft ze in A-versie over haar dagboek: 'Ik ben o zo blij dat ik je meegenomen heb.'[29] In de B-versie benadrukt ze het belang van haar dagboek door te schrijven dat ze het als eerste inpakte op de avond voordat ze gingen onderduiken.[10]
\r\n\r\nDe vulpen waarmee Anne schreef, een cadeau van oma Höllander voor haar negende verjaardag, verdween per ongeluk samen met de aardappelschillen in de kachel.[36]
\r\n\r\nAnne noemt herhaaldelijk hoe belangrijk schrijven voor haar is. Zo dankt ze God dat hij haar daarmee de mogelijkheid heeft gegeven om zich uit te drukken.[37] Ze schrijft dat ze journaliste wil worden en: ‘niemand die niet schrijft weet hoe fijn schrijven is; vroeger betreurde ik het altijd dat ik in ’t geheel niet tekenen kon, maar nu ben ik overgelukkig dat ik tenminste schrijven kan.’
\r\n\r\nIn de zomer van 1943 begon Anne met het schrijven van verhaaltjes. De verhaaltjes zijn opgetekend in het dagboek, op de losse vellen en in een gekartonneerd schrift.[38] Ze wilde proberen onder pseudoniem een van haar sprookjes in het blad de Prins geplaatst te krijgen, maar dacht dat dat niet zou lukken omdat haar sprookjes te lang zijn.[39] Otto Frank vertelde hierover na de oorlog dat Anne aan Kleiman vroeg om onder de naam van zijn dochter het verhaaltje Blurry op te sturen. Kleiman vond dit te gevaarlijk. In het verhaaltje Het beste tafeltje lezen we dat Anne dagelijks van half drie tot vier uur kon beschikken over het tafeltje in de kamer die ze met Fritz Pfeffer deelde.[40] Met veel moeite bevocht ze twee keer in de week een extra anderhalf uur.
\r\n\r\nOmstreeks dezelfde tijd dat Anne met haar verhaaltjes begon kreeg ze voor haar veertiende verjaardag het boekje Literatuur- en Stijlstudie.[41] Het was een bloemlezing uit literair proza en verzen waarbij stijlfiguren en karakteristieken van de verschillende schrijvers werden toegelicht.
\r\n\r\nAnne Frank's diaries underpin everything that has become known about Anne Frank and the history of the time in hiding. After all, it is almost exclusively Anne's writings that document the course of the 25 months in hiding.
\r\n\r\nThe handwritten manuscript of Anne Frank's diaries, on the basis of which Otto Frank compiled the first edition of The Secret Annex (1947), consists of a red checked booklet, two cardboard notebooks and over 200 sheets of coloured copy paper. Otto Frank bequeathed his daughter Anne's manuscripts from the period of hiding to the State of the Netherlands. Since June 2009, they have been with the Anne Frank House. Since the scholarly edition of the diaries (1986), it has been customary to refer to these manuscripts successively as diaries 1, 2 and 3 (or A-version) and the loose sheets (or B-version).[1]
\r\n\r\nDiaries 1, 2 and 3 contain Anne Frank's original diary entries. On the loose sheets, she began rewriting and editing her original diary entries in the spring of 1944 with the intention of writing a novel entitled The Secret Annex.[2] Together with the Storybook, the Favourite Quotes Notebook and the Blanco Monster Electro Huishoudboek (photo album), these manuscripts form Anne Frank's legacy from the hiding period in the Secret Annex.
\r\n\r\nFrom before the period in hiding, a number of letters written by Anne to her father and to her family in Switzerland have been preserved.[3]
\r\n\r\nIn Anne's handwriting, a number of rhymes are known in the poetry albums of her friends. Rhymes by Anne are known to exist in the albums of Juultje Ketellapper, Henny Scheerder, Mary Bos, Kitty Egyedi, Jacqueline van Maarsen, Hanneli Goslar, Ytje Swilens, Bep Groot Batavé, Dinie van Amelsbeek.[4] Also surviving from this period is the 'Egypt Book', a cardboard notebook in which Anne (re)wrote comments on pictures cut from a Kunst in Beeld worksheet on the history of Egypt.[5] It is assumed that this was an assignment made in the first year of secondary school. A similar piece of work was made by a former classmate of Anne Frank at the 6th Montessori school, Klaartje Musikant in the first year of HBS.
\r\n\r\nClassmates at the 6th Montessori school say Anne was writing stories back then.[6] None of these survived, however.
\r\n\r\nIn his book, Ernst Schnabel quoted Mr van Gelder, Anne's teacher in the first to fourth grades of the 6th Montessori school, as saying that Anne wrote good essays and wanted to be a writer.[7]
\r\n\r\nAnne received the famous red checked diary for her thirteenth birthday on 12 June 1942.[8] She addresses her first real diary entry on 14 June to her diary self: 'I'll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesn't count).'[9] When she went into hiding a few weeks later with her parents and sister Margot, the diary is the first thing she packed, she later writes.[10]
\r\n\r\nOn Wednesday 8 July 1942, Anne wrote in her diary for the first time while in hiding.[9] She describes the day of Margot's call-up for labour and going into hiding. The second note is a reflection on her birthday exactly a month before.[11] This first diary runs until 5 December 1942.[12] "I may perhaps ask Bep if she could go to Perrij and see if they still sell diaries, otherwise I'll have to get a notebook soon, because my diary is getting full, too bad! I can fortunately stretch it a bit with the leaves I have stuck between them," Anne wrote on 20 October 1942.[13] Bep Voskuijl explained that Anne asked her for a diary that could be locked with a key, but that she did not manage to find such a thing at the time.[14] On 2 May 1943 and on 22 January 1944, Anne retrospectively added notes.[15] She also wrote then that by now she considered it a waste of the pages left empty.[16]
\r\n\r\nWhatever the case, the following diary or diaries are missing. The second surviving diary begins with the entry of 22 December 1943 and runs until 17 April 1943.[17] The third diary follows this and runs from 18 April 1943 to 1 August 1944 (three days before the arrest of the people in hiding and two of their helpers).[18] A whole year's worth of diary is therefore missing.
\r\n\r\nFrom the very first page, Anne addresses her diary personally, making her diary a friend.[19] She ends the diary entry of 21 September 1942 with: 'I would just love to correspond with somebody, so that is what I intend to do in future with my diary. I shall write it from now on in letter form, which actually comes to the same thing. Dear Jettje, (I shall simply say), My dear friend, both in the future as well as now I shall have a lot to tell you.'[20] That evening, Anne also writes a few lines to Emmy and asks her if she has read Joop ter Heul.[21]
\r\n\r\nFrom then on, Anne takes turns addressing her diary entries predominantly to different imaginary girlfriends: Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien and Loutje whom she partly borrowed from the characters in Cissy van Marxveldt's Joop ter Heul series.[22] She writes: 'I like this way of writing in my diary much better.'[23]
\r\n\r\nIn the Joop ter Heul series, Joop wrote letters to her friend Netty, but because her father only allowed her to write once a month (on Sundays) because of her school performance, she started keeping a diary (secretly) in her sister's old notebooks.[24]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul had a club with seven girlfriends (Pop, Pien, Noortje, Loutje, Kitty and Conny) whose name was formed by the initial letters of their names: the Jopopinoloukico club. Anne Frank also had a club with Sanne, Jacqueline, Ilse and Hanneli: the Little Bear minus 2.[9]
\r\n\r\nAnne loved Cissy van Marxveldt's books and had certainly read one volume of the Joop ter Heul series before going into hiding.[25] According to Jacqueline van Maarsen, Anne and she read the second volume. That would mean she would have finished the first volume at that point.[26] She read Een Zomerzotheid by Cissy van Marxveldt no less than four times.[27] While in hiding, Johannes Kleiman took his daughter's books for her.[27]
\r\n\r\nOn 21 September 1942, the day she started the letter form in her diary, she had just finished or almost finished Joop ter Heul and had to wait for Mr Kleiman to bring the last two volumes for her the next Saturday.[28] Two days after that, on 26 September, she had finished both of them (Joop van Dil-ter Heul and Joop en haar jongen). She liked the last volume best.[29]
\r\n\r\nAround the same period, Anne wrote a letter in her diary to Jacqueline van Maarsen and answered an imaginary letter from Jacqueline.[30] Anne wrote her diary letters to Jettje, Emmy, Pop, Marianne, Kitty, Conny, Pien and Loutje. She wrote to them about herself and the events in the Secret Annex. At the same time, she reacted to events and people who appeared in the Joop ter Heul books. For example, Anne asked Noortje to stay and arranged it with Noortje's mother.[31]
\r\n\r\nJoop ter Heul talked about the distance that always existed between her and her mother.[32] Both Anne and Joop had a mother they could not discuss things with. The last diary entry from the first red checkered diary is addressed to Kitty.[28] From the very beginning, Anne made it clear that she preferred to write to Kitty.[33] The real Kitty from the Joop ter Heul series is called Kitty Franken.
\r\n\r\nIn diaries A2 and A3, Anne addresses entires only to Dear Kitty. Since 1943 is almost entirely missing from the A version, we do not know when Anne switched to this.
\r\n\r\nIn the first diary letter of the B version, Anne explained that the diary idea came about because she does not have a girlfriend, that the diary itself will be the girlfriend and that that girlfriend is called Kitty.[34] All the diary letters of the B version begin with Dear Kitty.
\r\n\r\nIn response to Minister of Education Bolkestein's appeal on Radio Orange on 28 March 1944, Anne began rewriting her original diary on loose (light yellow, light blue, pink and grey) sheets of copy paper, commonly called the loose sheets, in late May 1944.[35] Bep Voskuijl stated that she had provided Anne with this carbon copy paper.[14]
\r\n\r\n"Mr. Bolkestein, the Cabinet Minister, speaking on the Dutch broadcast from London, said that after the war, a collection would be made of diaries and letters dealing with the war. Of course everyone pounced on my diary. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annex. The title alone would make people think it was a detective story."\r\n\r\n
And on Saturday 20 May 1944, Anne Frank writes: "At long last after a great deal of reflection I have started my 'Achterhuis', in my head it is as good as finished, although it won't go as quickly as that really, if it ever comes off at all."
\r\n\r\nThe loose sheets cover the period from 20 June 1942 to 29 March 1944. Anne thus edited her original diaries into the B-version in just over two months. It is important to realise here that although Anne used her original diaries as a basis, the B version was written retrospectively. She describes events from 1942 and 1943 in the spring and summer of 1944. For example, in the A-version, she writes of her diary: "I am oh so glad I took you with me."[29] In the B-version, she emphasises the importance of her diary by writing that she packed it first on the night before they went into hiding.[10]
\r\n\r\nThe fountain pen Anne wrote with, a present from Grandma Höllander for her ninth birthday, accidentally disappeared into the stove along with the potato peels.[36]
\r\n\r\nAnne repeatedly mentions how important writing is to her. For instance, she thanks God for giving her the opportunity to express herself through it.[37] She writes that she wants to become a journalist and: "no one who does not write knows how fine writing is; I used to regret that I could not draw at all, but now I am overjoyed that at least I can write."
\r\n\r\nIn the summer of 1943, Anne started writing stories. The stories were recorded in the diary, on loose sheets and in a cardboard notebook.[38] She wanted to try to get one of her fairy tales placed in the magazine De Prins under a nom de plume, but thought it would not succeed because her fairy tales were too long.[39] Otto Frank said about this after the war that Anne asked Kleiman to send the story Blurry the Explorer under his daughter's name. Kleiman thought this was too dangerous. In the story The Best Little Table, we read that Anne had daily access to the little table in the room she shared with Fritz Pfeffer from 2.30 to 4 pm.[40] With great difficulty, she fought for an extra hour and a half twice a week.
\r\n\r\nAround the same time when Anne started writing her stories, she received the booklet Literature and Style Study for her fourteenth birthday.[41] It was an anthology of literary prose and verse explaining stylistic figures and characteristics of different writers.
\r\n\r\n